The list of great things that have come out of the Covid Era is not long. But one positive, and popular, feature born in the pandemic has been MLive’s Local Eats series.
Each Saturday in our local communities across Michigan, our reporters and photographers find a restaurant or food item to highlight. In addition to uncovering amazing tastes and iconic menu items – think, 7-pound wet burritos at a truck stop – Local Eats profiles small business owners who are embedded in the culture and history of their towns.
This was critical coming out of COVID lockdowns in late 2020 and into 2021. Service-based businesses, which are labor intensive and often see small profit margins in good times, struggled mightily to regain their financial footing.
MLive editors realized this was an opportunity to not only help the business community, but to provide interesting dining options for readers who were, well, starved to get out of the house and back into social settings.
“There’s arguably nothing more important to the cultural experience of a city than the food it offers,” said Taylor DesOrmeau, MLive’s editor for The Kalamazoo Gazette. “It makes for a great feature because people love food. They love to hear about a new place around that they haven’t tried and see some mouth-watering photos.”
DesOrmeau is right not only about reader interest – our nearly 400 Local Eats stories in 2023 drew more than 1 million readers – but The Gazette holds the distinction of having the most readers per food story across our eight newspaper markets.
“It gives us a great excuse to get out and learn more about the restaurants that make our towns unique,” he said. “We hadn’t been telling enough of these stories, as it was often just restaurant openings and closings that we’d write about.”
This is a team effort, involving many of our local reporters statewide and all of our photographers. And while the menu is front and center, the real heart of these stories is the people who are pouring passion into their work.
“One of the favorite Local Eats I did was finding a classically trained chef that was working in a small kitchen at the back of a (Jackson) party store,” said J. Scott Park, photo editor for MLive. “He was pumping out some great food and the community didn't know he was there.”
That chef moved on in 2022, and when a new businesswoman moved into the space, The Jackson Citizen Patriot came back out to profile her unique offerings. Those include deep-fried Philly cheesesteaks and deviled eggs topped with fried chicken and a honey drizzle.
“I think a good Local Eats feature will surprise the reader. Give them something to seek out and try,” Park said. “We look for restaurants that have something unique – maybe they have a crazy decor or offer a dish you can't find other places.”
Another great aspect of Local Eats is the racial and ethnic diversity our journalists uncover – the features routinely showcase restaurants owned and operated by Black, Latino, Asian and other diverse business owners. Recent examples include this Peruvian restaurant in Ann Arbor and this Ethiopian eatery in Grand Rapids.
You can join in – if you have a favorite place, a go-to meal, or a favorite cook drop me or one our local editors a line and we’ll add it to our growing list of Local Eats features. We’re happy for the suggestions.
“Really, there are no limits with these,” Park said. “As long as it is locally owned, we will hang out in a dive bar or a four-star steakhouse, all in an effort to find something unique.”
Hungry yet? Come back to MLive.com on Saturday and get ready to dig in. And if you want to get more ideas from our most recent Local Eats features, click here and start planning your next night out.
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